Charaxes lycurgus

Charaxes lycurgus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. lycurgus
Binomial name
Charaxes lycurgus (Fabricius, 1793)[1]
Synonyms
Papilio lycurgus Fabricius, 1793 Papilio laodice Drury, 1782 Nymphalis nesiope Hewitson, 1854

Charaxes lycurgus, the Laodice Untailed Charaxes, is a butterfly in the Nymphalidae family. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.^[2] The habitat consists of lowland evergreen forests and riverine forests.

Riverine forest at the Congo Uganda border

Adult males feed on otter and bird droppings and both sexes are attracted to fermented fruit.

The larvae feed on Pterocarpus santalinoides, Paullinia pinnata, Albizia zygia, Lonchocarpus cyanescens, Dalbergia, Millettia, Dichapetalum and Trachyphrynium species.

Subspecies

• Charaxes lycurgus lycurgus (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, western Nigeria)
• Charaxes lycurgus bernardiana Plantrou, 1978 (northern and eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Bioko, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan, western Uganda, Tanzania: eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika)

Taxonomy

Charaxes lycurgus is a member of the species group Charaxes lycurgus. The supposed clade members are:

Clade 1

• Charaxes lycurgus Nominate
• Charaxes porthos
• Charaxes zelica

Clade 2

• Charaxes mycerina
• Charaxes doubledayi

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charaxes lycurgus.

Wikispecies has information related to: Charaxes lycurgus

• Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1974 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part IX. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Entomology) 29 (8):415-487. as laodice

External links

• Images of C. lycurgus lycurgus Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
• Charaxes lycurgus images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
• Charaxes lycurgus lycurgus images at BOLD
• Charaxes lycurgus bernardiana images at BOLD